Developed by Dr. Stephen Hajduk, founding director of CORD, BioTeach has been offered since 1992 to high school biology teachers within the state of Alabama.

Over 200 teachers throughout the state have participated in BioTeach over the course of 15 years. Approximately one-third of these teachers represent Birmingham City Schools.

The goal of BioTeach is to provide teachers with the basic knowledge and laboratory skills needed to bring molecular biology into the high school classroom.

Designed especially for biology educators, teachers will earn graduate credit for this four week, laboratory-intensive summer course in cellular and molecular biology. Tuition costs are the responsibility of the applicant.

As an interdisciplinary course, BioTeach offers lectures taught by established faculty members from the primary basic science departments at UAB. Topics covered include:

Neurobiology

AIDS

Sickle Cell Anemia

Ethics in Science

Forensic Medicine

Tropical Diseases

Bacterial Genetics

The laboratory portion of the course is facilitated by UAB graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. Teachers work in small groups (4 teachers/group) with the facilitator, to enhance laboratory skills and conduct experiments.

Support for BioTeach has come from a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a SEPA grant from the NIH. Currently, the Alabama Commission of Higher Education (ACHE) and UAB support BioTeach.